my $example = "stupid\texample\tfor\tyou\n";
my ($first,$rest) = split /\t/, $example, 2;
# sets $first == "stupid"
# and $rest == "example\tfor\tyou\n"

##</code><code>##

my $example = "stupid\texample\tfor\tyou\n";
$example =~ s/\t.*$//;